# Local Ordinances vs. Constitution

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-ordinances-vs-constitution/759614>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 11, 2016, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-ordinances-vs-constitution/759614 "2016-07-11T00:03:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-ordinances-vs-constitution/759614/81 "2016-07-25T02:38:50Z")

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> [@Trinopus](#):
>
> I have NEVER posted anything I did not believe was factually true. Any accusations against me contrary to that are factually wrong.

Name one.

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**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-ordinances-vs-constitution/759614/82 "2016-07-25T04:41:19Z")

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> [@Acsenray](#):
>
> Remember, however, that until a court adopts the reasoning, it’s still only someone’s opinion about what the law should be or probably is. Only a court can definitively state what the law actually is.
> 
> A constitutional scholar’s opinion carries more weight than yours or mine, but if the court disagrees with him or her, then that opinion doesn’t actually state what the law is.
> 
> As a practical matter, only a court can give the constitution meaning. That’s how our system works. Until a court speaks, it’s pretty much all just yakking.

There’s also the depressing political aspect, where the Supreme Court has some ideological make-up, on the basis of Presidential appointments. It is horribly possible for the court to say Yes one day, and No the next. At least one Supreme Court Justice has publicly regretted a vote on a decision.

We have, in our history, been pretty lucky in our Justices; there haven’t been too many who were arrogantly ideological, in a kind of Humpty Dumpty fashion, decreeing that it means what they say it means. But there is, ultimately, no protection against that, any more than against a runaway Congress or a tyrannical President.

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**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-ordinances-vs-constitution/759614/83 "2016-07-25T04:50:17Z")

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> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> Name one.

That’s one right there.

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**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-ordinances-vs-constitution/759614/84 "2016-07-25T17:41:47Z")

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**Moderator Note**

**Ascenray** , **Exapno Mapcase** , and **Trinopus** , dial it back. I am not going to try to sort out who said what to whom, or who is accusing another poster of what. Stop making the discussion personal. No warnings issued.

Colibri  
General Questions Moderator

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